As far as mechanics are concerned, maybe that would be significant if the gender was entrenched in the design, but it’s not. From a narrative point though, sure, maybe she falls into that trope, depending on how it goes in the game itself. Maybe Pyra will have more agency in the story, in which case cool, good for her, or maybe she won’t, in which case whatever, we’ll all live. Worth noting, sure, but the only way it’ll impact anyone’s enjoyment is through personal preferance.

Like, again, I’d probably be more inclined to think ill of this stuff if I knew women who did, but most women I know either just think it’s not for them or a hella into anime cute anime girls. Maybe Deep Weeb Gays Twitter just doesn’t have much overlap with where you’re at.

Actually, not like that! Falcom is generally really good about spreading roles out. Ys VIII for example has three playable women in your party and stats wise they’re all pretty much equal to or stronger than the main character. Ys is an action RPG that focuses on, well, action. Healers aren’t really a thing. All of your characters are fighters. The Trails games, which operate a lot more like traditional JRPGs, also give you a lot of variety to play with for both genders.

I think what @redsilversnake means is that Falcom tends to emphasize gender at times. They draw attention to gendered traits in ways that can be pretty basic. Not usually, I feel, intentionally gross or anything, just…basic. It’s weird because at times they subvert them too but it’s hard to tell if it’s really intentional or just a happy byproduct of creating enjoyable characters.

Naw, that’s no me dismissing your opinion, that was me tagging out of the discussion because I’m clearly not interested or needed here, by my own misjudgement. A polite doff of the hat as I walk out of the door into the embrace of like 4 bodypillows. Ta!

Actually, not like that! Falcom is generally really good about spreading roles out. Ys VIII for example has three playable women in your party and stats wise they’re all pretty much equal to or stronger than the main character. Ys is an action RPG that focuses on, well, action. Healers aren’t really a thing. Ask of your characters are fighters. The Trails games, which operate a lot more like traditional JRPGs, also give you a lot of variety to play with for both genders.

I think what @redsilversnake means is that Falcom tends to emphasize gender at times. They draw attention to gendered traits in ways that can be pretty basic. Not usually, I feel, intentionally gross or anything, just…basic. It’s weird because at times they subvert them too but it’s hard to tell if it’s really intentional or just a happy byproduct of creating enjoyable characters.

Yes, this. Falcom’s done pretty well when it comes to gender parity and variety in both personalities and roles for both men and women, but they also have random dialogue referring to supposedly immutable differences between them.

Falcom earliest games are of that short-lived video game aesthetic of Charming Japanese Western Fantasy. It’s something they’ve actually regressed a bit on with some recent games. Memories of Celceta is a good example, it’s a remake of Ys IV: Dawn of Ys. One of the female characters was redesigned to be an agile archer kind of person with more direct familial ties to the good guy faction leadership, basically looping around into old D&D stereotypes to be more anime instead of just being a badass swordsperson who is Adol’s ally in the original. Another female character, admittedly didn’t have a huge rule in the game but she was cut entirely from Celceta.

It’s still better than their stuff like Sorcerian where female characters have default lower strength/etc. by default and all those other weird class limitations because it was based on first edition Dungeons and Dragons.

The Ys series (and many of Falcom’s other odd RPG and adventure games) are generally super charming and worth playing though, there’s a ton of them.

I felt like Celceta was fairly weak overall. It’s totally fine and sometimes pretty enjoyable but it’s not one I actually would really recommend.

VIII is an absolute blast to play, probably my favorite game in the series. It’s too bad the localization is so horribly disappointing. @onsamyj you’re lucky you’re holding off for the PC version which should have the updated localization in it. It’s bad enough that they’re getting another translator and editor to come in and rewrite some stuff. Not that I think they can do all that much in only a month and a half but it’s better than nothing I guess.

I didn’t look into it beyond the announcement either but the good news is the relocalization will be part of the default PC release.

SabuhtoothAlex:

I felt like Celceta was fairly weak overall. It’s totally fine and sometimes pretty enjoyable but it’s not one I actually would really recommend.

For real. Celceta may as well have been one of the ultra low budget PS2 remakes they did of 3, 4 and 5. Which is a shame since the original Ys IV is an awesomely fun game nd a fan favorite. There’s a fan translation of it if people want to emulate the PC Engine/Turbo Grafx CD as it was unfortunately never officially sold anywhere outside of Japan.

Man, FALCOM. <3

Like for real Skyrim would be 10,000 times better if it had music like this for when monsters attack or whatever.

It’s also important to note that there are two essential forms that Ys games can take, those where you play as Adol singularly and those where you have a party of three characters that you can change to at any time.

Well there’s also Ys Origin which is neither, but it’s kind of a unique one off thing.

Ys VIII really clicked for me. The party stuff is simple and the switching between characters is just so fast and easy to do. There’s almost nothing to micromanage if you dislike micromanagement. In general I think it’s just far better designed than 7 or Celceta were.

From what I hear, neither version of Mask Of The Sun is all that well-regarded; I typically see a lot more praise for Dawn Of Ys, while Memories Of Celceta is acknowledged as the definitive/canon version (as it’s the only version of IV that Falcom themselves actually developed).
Anything about V should probably be held off on, as a comment from Falcom’s president and the chronological placement of VIII, along with how Kefin is referenced, are pointing to it getting a remake in the near future.

re: party vs. solo, VIII definitely does an overall better job compared to Seven or Celceta. It really feels like they learned from those games’ mistakes.

Xenoblade Chronicles is my all-time favorite game, so I feel obligated to play the new one, even though I have some reservations based on what Nintendo has shown so far. On the positive side, I like the tweaks made to the combat, but at the same time, I think its methodical nature isn’t for everyone. Visually it looks like a mixed bag to me, especially the character designs. It’s a step up from how X looked, but I hoped for a bit more. Regardless, as long as the story is comparable to the first XC, it’ll automatically be one of my all-time favorite games. The first game was clever in how it presented its story, even if it was quite trope-y, and the philosophical themes made it worthy of the Xeno name.

I can’t speak for the Ys series, but I think Falcom is a very competent RPG developer, so the new Ys will probably turn out fine.